George Cele­brates Waverly

During our Sixth Grade Cele­bra­tion last week, George, who came to Waverly in the middle of the year, spoke emotion­ally and eloquently about his tran­si­tion from public school and what Waverly has come to mean to him. Please enjoy his heartfelt words!

I first arrived at Waverly Elemen­tary School 7 months ago, fresh from [a] public school I had attended for the first half of the school year. I hadn’t fit in very well there, so I was eager to come here, espe­cially since I’d made friends during my shadow day.

I was already expect­ing Waverly to be great, and within the first few days after I’d arrived, I knew I’d made the right choice coming here. The curricu­lum was much more chal­leng­ing and fun than I was expect­ing, but the best part is I have many, many friends.

As soon as I arrived, I was instantly taken in, shown around, and intro­duced to every­body in the school. Now, I can’t go anywhere in Pasadena without running into someone I know from Waverly.

I real­ized how lucky I was during our camping trip to El Capitan. We’d been told by the teach­ers we were in big trouble with the camp­ground offi­cials for leaving trash on the ground. We were walking to where we were supposed to have a talk with the camp manager, and it turned out that it was actu­ally a surprise birth­day party for one of the students. Nothing like that had ever happened at my old school, and I real­ized just how special a place this was. It was the nicest feeling in the world.

Thanks are due to several people here had the biggest hand in making this such a nice place to be. Those people are my teach­ers, so I’d like to thank them. Erin, Cheri, Kerry, I don’t think I’ve ever accu­mu­lated as much knowl­edge as I have this year since I learned to talk.

I also want to thank my other teach­ers, Ken, Adriana, Josie, Michael, Eddie, and Billy for teach­ing me to make mari­onettes, present projects in Spanish, play Ulti­mate Frisbee, and learn new songs of every kind. I’ll remem­ber you all my life.

One of the secrets to Waverly is that every teacher knows every kid’s name, they’re always friendly, and they’re always helpful. I wish I could have been taught by all of you, but sadly that’s not possible.

However, grad­u­a­tion isn’t just about looking back, but looking forward to be ready for what lies ahead. And judging from how much I’ve learned and how fun it’s been here, I know that I am ready for middle school and that it will likely be just as fantas­tic as this year has been.

The only reason I’m ready is that this school has prepared me. I am more grate­ful for that than you could possi­bly imagine. Thank you, Waverly, for the best school year I’ve ever had.

The Waverly School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.